Session 12 Introduction to the Episcopal Church

Introduction to the Episcopal Church

Session 12 

Understanding the Book of Common Prayer (BCP)

Part 8:  The Reconciliation of a Penitent, also known as Confession or Private Confession

 A major crisis in the life of a person and a community has to do with the experience of what is known as sin.  In our social lives we know of legal traditions that define legal wrongs and juridical procedures for assigning/declaring guilt and authorizing and adjudicating penalties or remedies to people for committing acts deemed injurious to their communities.  Acts which are criminal may be sinful acts; all sinful acts may not be criminal acts.  Sin becomes a factor for people who are given a vision of what excellence means in their lives.  To fail at excellence is to know the experience of sin.

The practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Private Confession is not widespread in the Episcopal Church and varies to local parish or the piety of clergy in parishes who are persuasive about its usefulness.  The sacrament suffers from the memories of Roman Catholics who practiced it as obligatory prelude to receiving communion and in the frequency of its requirement there was a diminished sense of its practical purpose except something that was being done because it was a requirement of the church.  From our Reformation and Enlightenment perspectives Episcopalians have had a healthy suspicion of the power of clergy expressed as condescending paternalism and the complete baring of one’s soul to another person in an age when there is not such a wide educational gap between lay person and priest.  This is different from the age when the clergy served as the most omni-compentent local psychologist and educated person in the community. Episcopal priests do not want to live on any such omni-competent pedestal.

What can The Reconciliation of a Penitent mean for us as Episcopalians in practice?  Its very existence as an expression of our liturgical tradition is an indication that sin is something that is a crisis in the life of each person and in the life of the community.  That we are sinners and why we are sinners has been the topic of long discussions in all religions and in our Judeo-Christian traditions.  It used to satisfy people to say that a literal first persons, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and their one act made everyone after them to be born in sin and therefore sinful.

The Greek word for sin comes from an archery term and it means literally “missing the mark.”  The arrow is shot with intention to hit the target but the arrow misses.  In life we become aware of our failure to live up to standards of conduct in how we live towards others and in our willful delays to progress in excellence.  Sins often have open consequences within a community and if there are not strategies of interdiction there can arise harmful revenge and retaliation or divisions and separations within a community.  Christian bodies have lived in various relationships with legal procedure practiced outside of the church.  So sometimes a fault or moral failure has complication inside and outside of the church community.  The church has a commandment against stealing but so do the civil and criminal courts.  There can be an overlap between sin in the sense of lack of moral excellence and the legal consequences of harmful social behaviors.

I think the best way to understand Reconciliation is to see the notions of sin and repentance as positive features of our being on the baptismal path toward excellence.  We know that we are not perfect but we know that we are made perfectible, in that we know that we can make amendment and improvement.    Jesus encourged the continual work of education or repentance and this is the positive goal of every Christian.

The sacrament of Reconciliation grew in the tradition of the apostles who were told by Jesus that they had the power to forgive or retain sins.  The church has come to practice this as a ministerial act of the priestly office, but I think this ministerial act is more symbolic of what is psychologically and sociologically healthy for a community, namely, the forgiving of sins.  In practice if a family or community retains “or remembers” sins, then that community cannot survive.  Survival of the community depends on forgiveness occurring within a community of people who are all on a baptismal path of trying to become better.  At any point, none of us is as good as we need to be and at any point we understand that God’s forgiving grace is given to us to tolerate our not yet perfect selves.  Priests and bishops are to declare this in God’s name in the general absolution and private absolution of sin.

On the practical level, reconciliation is the honesty of a person saying “I am not an island and my life affects others and so no sin is personal or individual, it always has community dimensions.”  To say, what I do does not hurt anyone is to ignore the good that one could do instead of the so-called “private sin.”  When a priest declares absolution the priest has heard the confession on behalf of the community, “forgets it under the seal of confession,” and declares absolution on behalf of the community.  The absolution has nothing to do with the personal power or saintliness of the priest.  In fact, if you look at the last words of the priest in the rite of Reconciliation, they are, “Go in peace and pray for me, a sinner.”

Reconciliation may also be in a phase when a person cannot confess or make amends to a person who has been harmed by a deed. Sometimes we do not come to amendment of life until people are no longer in our lives and the path of reparation is impossible.   Reconciliation often occurs for persons in 12-Steps programs where in the 4^th and 5^th steps a moral inventory is made and admission to God, self and another person is made.    Reconciliation accompanies spiritual direction as one commits to an intentional path of spiritual excellence and seeks help of directors and confessors.  When one is in a crisis or life change, a life confession with a confessor may be an extended period of examination with the help of someone to assist in doing a general evaluation of one’s life so as to become open for some new insights for new directions in one’s spiritual path.

The practice of Reconciliation can be an indication of a healthy spiritual life just as therapy can be a sign of good psychological health.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation of a Penitent needs to be understood and practiced as a sound habit of spiritual health.

Exercise:

Think about the times you have made a confession.  Was it in another church?  Have you had some “natural” non-clergy confessors in your life?  Those with whom you could bare your soul?  Do you think that Reconciliation could ever be a part of your own spiritual rule of life?  What do you think about the Anglican position on Private Confession?  All may, no one must and some should!

Father Phil